Empathy

I actually took the test twice and took the average of my two scores, in order to get a more accurate score.  I didn’t like some of the questions because I was too centralized and had difficulties deciding between slightly agree and slightly disagree, so the second time I took the test I changed the answers to a few questions I was unsure about to cancel them out. My score was actually higher than I expected, I got a 63. I generally don’t trust online tests much (hence why I took it twice) but I feel like it’s a fairly accurate score. I’ve always been very intuitive about people’s feelings and I usually take others into consideration when deciding something. My main reason for wanting to be a politician is so I can make a positive difference in people’s lives so I guess that makes me an empathetic person. I completely agree with Dan Pink’s theory on teaching empathy; it’s exactly what I was thinking before I watched the video but he found a more proper way to express it. However I also believe we move within that spectrum constantly depending on situations. There are definitely days when I feel more empathetic and days when I just want to focus on me. As cliché as it might be, the most empathetic person I can think of is my priest. He gave up everything in order to serve people. He goes wherever the Archdiocese believes he is most needed, he can’t start a family, he can’t have a second career, if a family needs him at 3am he helps them even if he has a 6am mass, and what’s most astonishing is he enjoys it all. The amount of dedication to God and the vast variety in the community he serves requires him to be able to see everything in a million perspectives and give knowledgeable advice. On the other hand I am surrounded by un-empathetic friends. None of my friends are completely horrible but when grouped together they would probably score a 10. I have one friend who is extremely helpful towards others but she has no emotional intuition; she is a horrible person reader and can’t tell what people are feeling. On the other hand I have another friend who can look at someone and correctly guess how they feel but she just doesn’t care. She’s selfish and focused on reaching her goals and making herself happy so unless helping out benefits her in some way she won’t do it. (Haha yet they are still both my friends, I have a talent for ignoring people’s flaws and finding the good in them XD)

Drive

My Resolution word is Drive. This year is going to be extremely busy and full of new experiences and good-byes. I'm going to need a lot of willpower and persistence to succeed and avoid a breakdown and Drive will remind me to not give up and continue my journey towards greatness. I also like its more literal meaning of driving a car. I'm finally 18, and by the summer of this year I will have the freedom to go places without parent restrictions. My dream has always been to take a road trip the summer before college and I want to make that dream come true. I want to go places, both literally and figuratively, and "Drive" is a word that will take me where I want to go.
I don't really harbor any strong envious feelings towards a person or situation. However, I have daily moments of jealousy where I see something I can't have or someone accomplish something I like and I think "I hate life" but quickly move on. It's a wide range of situations too, from seeing a car I like to hearing about someone get a higher grade than me. The envy is always spurred from someone being more succesful than me, but rather then waste my time complaing I usually use it as motivation to work harder.
All of my friends and family can confirm I am a horrible liar. However when I do lie it's about feelings. I hate showing sadness and vulnerability, and unlike other lies, lying about feelings is easy all you have to do is smile. I am an extremely cheerful person, and usually it's genuine, but when I am feeling sad, angry, or stressed my personal mantra is to smile and nod. I'm sure people can see through it sometimes, but it's still the thing I lie about most.

Project Focus

I need an want to know how and to what extent money affects local state and federal government. I have decided to change my question. After my talk with Mr. Knighton I realized there was more to money in politics than election funding. I still want to keep my focus on how money affects politics however I no longer want to make PACs and Corporations the focus, and I want to explore money in local government more. Quite honestly I have completely confused myself about my question, and the more I think about it the more I'm confused. My focus has always been PACs but in evaluating what I want from politics and the HMP program I came to the conclusion that I will get a lot more out of my mentorship experience if I research local government and the influence of money, which often isn't greatly impacted by PACs, in our community. I want to start my mentorship with Hall Co Gov't before I create a concise question because I know that will clear my mind about how to change my focus from big federal billionaire campaign spending to local smaller scale spending. I just feel like I've discovered a whole new side to government that I never really thought about and I want to explore it at least for a day before I make a decision or else my confusion on what I want will just get worse.
As I stated earlier I really want to do something video related because that has always been one of my strongest project presentations. However I have recently started toying with the idea of a website. If my project goes the way I envision it I will have a lot of information to sort out and the simplest way for me to organize it is through a website. I can still  include videos but a website also lets be expand to other media that I want to incorporate like a discussion room, charts, photo galleries and so forth. I don't know if I'm that talented in website design but it's something I have always wanted to explore and since the point of the project is to learn something new and share you're acquired knowledge with others, creating a website would be a perfect way to achieve that.
I believe I already began my real inquiry. As I was talking to Mr. Knighton and telling him about my goals our conversation answered and brought up many questions. I want to learn how elected officials solve issues? Is there a difference in how federal and local officials compromise? Does money affect what decisions are made? How often? The only way I can get a lot of those questions answered is by asking the people I'm going to be working with and observing. I think observing to the point of being creepy is going to be how I best "inquire" whether I'm sitting in a commissioners meeting or touring the building. The best way I can get my research done is through simply watching. If I sit quietly and let the people around me go about their everyday routine I can learn how they make decisions, what they value, and the importance of different issues, because rather than getting textbook or rehearsed answers I'll see the answers and learn about the human aspect of being a government employee.That one meeting just completely changed a lot of my views, and I know the longer I intern the more my views and questions will change. I'm just really super excited about starting Tuesday and the fact that I have such a great opportunity to be inside government.

Blame the FEC

I first became aware of Citizens United while doing current events for government, however it wasn't until I started watching The Colbert Report that I began truly researching the case and campaign finance. This article was really helpful to me because I have always thought that Citizens United was to blame for the chaos and I never took the time to explore other causes for campaign corruption. Citizens United played a large role in allowing unlimited campaign spending, but it can not be held responsible for the two biggest problems in campaign spending, which are Super PACs and secret donors.

Stephen Colbert focused a lot on campaign spending during his show and he actually created a Super PAC to demonstrate to his audience how sketchy campaign spending can be. He managed to collect around 800K from anonymous donors for his Super PAC, and through many legal loopholes he ended up not having to report how he spent the money collected. The thing is a lot of these loopholes could be closed if the FEC enforced campaign law more strictly. Partisan disagreements and stubbornness have been the cause for all the problems, like the rest of Washington, people are more concerned with their party winning rather than talking things out and compromising. The FEC is equally split party wise, however since about 1996 both parties have sought to protect soft money contributions. FEC regulations have been weakened in order to protect the use of soft money, and while the Democrats have become more anti soft money, the Republicans embrace it even more. This division has resulted in grid-lock, meaning there is no room for action so all the old ineffective laws have remained.
The law states that Political Action Committees are supposed to be independent from Candidates yet with loose enforcement this past election PACs were created by candidate family members, friends, previous employees, and so on; often the Candidates would meet with committee leaders and publicly endorse the PAC. Correct me if I am wrong but that is not independence. The law is present but the FEC is failing to do it's job.
A change need to be made to stop the secret spending and law bending. One option is to stop appointing partisan officials and appoint bipartisan outsiders willing to enforce the laws and set regulations rather than seek to please their party. This year it can be said that the election wasn't bought because Romney lost, yet Obama had the advantage of being an incumbent and with that gone in 2016 the chaos of this year will be a joke compared to what can happen if laws aren't enforced.
I have a lot of trust in this article because it was written by Trevor Potter. Usually I don't know the authors of  article so I rely on their credentials, but as a faithful Colbert viewer I am familiar with Mr. Potter. He is Colbert's Lawyer and a previous FEC commissioner and chairman; he has made many appearances on The Colbert Report discussing campaign spending and helping Colbert expose the loopholes many political contributors and Politicians use.

Potter, Trevor. "We Can Stop the Tidal Wave of Secret Political Cash." Washington Post. 18 Nov 2012: B.1. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 11 Dec 2012.

Technology

The main goal behind my mentorship was advertising, and a lot of technology was involved. However it wasn't very advanced or hard to obtain technology. The thing I noticed was Mrs. Cooley's most valuable resource was email. Running a campaign is all about appealing to people and the best way to do that is by building a relationship with them. Email gave Mrs. Cooley the ability to build that relationship without using much time and it allowed her to reach a lot more people. She would keep potential voters updated on events and the benefits of voting Cooley with a quick two minute informational email sent to a mail group of as many people as she wanted to include. Another valuable communication device was her iPhone, with it she could not only call people, which was her preferred method of communications because it was more personal, but also stay up to date with her mail, and use a variety of nifty apps. Social Media also played an important role in the campaign. Websites like Facebook and Twitter allowed Mr. Cooley's name to become more popular and brought in some more supporters, plus it kept people informed on the Campaign. Supporters could share the Cooley for Congress posts or tag the page and inform their followers/friends of Cooley. Towards the latter part of the campaign we expanded to radio advertising which was really convenient, because the radio stations gave reports on the most successful ad, and played it the most.

A program that I learned about was Vote Builder. It wasn't used in Cooley's campaign because it wasn't very cost efficient, but I personally think it's a very useful program. Vote Builder is used by the Georgia Democratic party to attract more votes. It is basically a record of all registered Georgia voters, and it includes details that could be used to target voters. For example it includes the voter's Religion, Age, Party Affiliation, number of people in household and their ages, voting record, and a lot of other personal details. It also allows for Robocalls to be made and mass mailing lists based on the detail of your choice, for example you could send a letter to all African American twenty-three year old males in District 9. The information on Vote Builder can be extremely valuable if used intelligently and with a manipulative goal.

I think any future technological innovations would be beneficial to campaigns. Politics is a game of charm and being able to relate to the public. The best innovations in the political field is anything that improves communication, but that involves a wide range of things. Improved planes and cars means an improvement for politicians to travel to the people, Social Media offers cheap advertisement, and web cams allow human interaction without physical presence; an adaptable candidate will be able to use whatever technology is developed to his or her favor.

I'm still not sure about the specifics of my project presentation but I know that computers will be involved. Right now I am leaning towards a video project because I find a movie like presentation that allows me to make creative cuts, add sound effect/music, and present information in a visually exciting way is an effective way for me to present my research. A video also allows me more exposure opportunities because if I do it correctly I should be able to just send a link to people without me having to explain anything in person. Another perk is that I can satisfy the performing art geek in me by creating a video. :)

Broken Society

  I have always considered myself a successful person, and I have often been recognized for my success which is something I greatly enjoy. However in eighth grade a broken system caused me to lose an opportunity. Every year the counselors would pick the top Hispanic students in the eighth grade and take them on a trip to visit the University of Georgia. UGA tries to diversify their campus by offering this opportunities to outstanding Hispanics, and giving them scholarship and college applications information, and allowing them to tour the school. I was more than confident that I would be chosen to go because I was definitely in the top of my class, and that was including all races, once it was lowered to just Hispanics I'm sure I was like first or second. However I noticed that I wasn't getting called up to meet with the counselors. I assumed that they just hadn't gotten to my name yet or been able to reach me so I just continued on with life and figured I would eventually get chosen. Well the day came when all the chosen students went on the trip and I was never invited. I was shocked to say the least and so were my teachers and classmates, I started to doubt my abilities and was depressed most of the day. Anyways later I found out that, while I hadn't been called up a Filipino friend of mine had been invited but she told them she wasn't Hispanic so she wasn't taken. That immediately made my suspicious and I put two and two together and realized I wasn't invited because they assumed I was white! When I talked to the counselor about it she even told me it was only for Hispanic students, at which point I informed her I was Hispanic but by then it was too late. This fits right under Godin's "I didn't know" model because the fact that I don't fit the stereotypical Hispanic profile, therefore preventing them from knowing my race caused me to miss out on an opportunity to prepare for my future. I'm sure the counselors were trying to save time by not looking at records but if they had looked they would have known I was qualified rather than just assume that since I "look" white and "act" white I was white. This actually happens to me a lot, I am constantly having to explain to people that I am Hispanic, but this is one of the few times when I have actually lost something because of people's assumptions.
   That's one of society's greatest problems, stereotypes and assumptions. I believe schools should try to teach our students to not judge or assume about others, because in today's global age we all need to learn to be open-minded about different people. Globalization means future generations will interact with diversity even more than we do today, and as educators schools need to invoke students with the social skills necessary to succeed in a global market and not categorize people through inaccurate generalizations and stereotypes. I believe it's human nature to judge and try to categorize strangers however, people need to learn to ignore that part of the brain and to not let first impressions inhibit them from learning the truth about a person. Tolerance is an important key to success and values like that are best taught at young ages and the best way to become tolerant is to become informed. If schools taught more about other cultures then students would be more likely to accept them because it would be familiar to them.
  I am not implying that I was judged or discriminated against, I know it was an honest mistake. However, the system was broken because information was lacking, so an assumption based on a stereotype to save time was made.

My Essential Question

 Examine and explain how large contributions by corporations and wealthy individuals to politicians influence laws, political decisions, campaigns, and my rights as a citizen, and evaluate the level of power large contributors hold compared to average citizens like me in recent and past decades? Report whether my research changed my views and plans, and predict the effect it could have on my political campaign if I run for office.

I first learned about Political Action Committees first semester of my junior year in AP Government, since that first lesson I have been interested in the role money has in government. I have never really taken the time to thoroughly research the subject, most of what I know has been from class or from looking stuff up after watching The Colbert Report. However this project gives me an excuse to finally find out more about how money shapes our society especially in recent years and just how deep of a hole we're in. What makes me most excited is the potential of what I could do with the knowledge from this research. Hopefully I will be able to find out things that aren't publicly known and I will be able to inform about and if I'm super lucky discover some corruption or surprising lack of corruption in Politics. Many people are oblivious to how much political contributions are influencing our country and the amount of power these contributors have and finding answers to my question, will hopefully enlighten enough people to encourage them to make a change. Another reason I'm excited is because I'm a very curious person and the amount of investigation opportunities researching this project will offer will make me feel like a secret agent/journalist, which were two careers I used to be interested in, plus ease my mind. I thought a lot about how to word my question so that it would show most of what I wanted to discover through my project. I believe that I created a question that meets my needs as best as I could do without it getting too lengthy or confusing. My main goal is to find out who is controlling our country (people or money?) and I'm confident my question will satisfy that goal. Rubric